Colorado River Update: Former Commissioner of Reclamation Joins Our Board!

Hello Friends of the Colorado River!

Great news here — former Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Dan Beard, has joined our board of directors! We are very pleased that Dan is joining us — he’s had an exceptional career in the government and non-profit world, and is spending part of his “retirement” being a vocal advocate for change in water policy in the U.S. and especially in California and the Colorado River basin.

Commissioner Beard raised a lot of eyebrows with the publication of his 2015 book, Deadbeat Dams: Why we need to abolish the Bureau of Reclamation and tear down Glen Canyon Dam. And, it’s just exactly that kind of eyebrow raising and thought-provoking leadership that Save The Colorado wants to encourage throughout the Southwest U.S. around river and water protection policy. So many of our rivers are drained and depleted, and so many of our federal, state, and local governmental agencies are often leading the brigade of destruction. Dan has been an extraordinary breath of fresh air — an “ecological truth teller” — at a time when few people are willing to speak out. Welcome aboard, Dan!

And there’s lots of great reasons to be telling the truth about the river destruction projects that are planned across the Colorado River basin right now! As we’ve noted to you many times, multiple new dam, diversion, pipeline, and reservoir projects are currently in the permitting process with the Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission around the Colorado River basin. You thought the era big dam building was over? You were wrong, unfortunately!

Save The Colorado is leading the charge to address all of these threats — in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico — and we’re helping to support our dam-fighting colleagues in every place we can. In 2016 we expect to see “Records of Decisions” about two projects in Colorado, and we expect to do our very best to fight these projects and protect the Colorado River from these threats. How many more walls of river-destroying cement should we allow to be poured along the Colorado River? NONE, in our opinion. Stay tuned for the action — 2016 is going to be an exciting year!

If you live along the Front Range of Colorado, please join us at this great event Friday night! Our most esteemed friend and colleague — and renowned nature photographer — John Fielder, is giving a talk and slide show about his great new book, Colorado’s Yampa River: Free Flowing and Wild from the Flat Tops to the Green.

As you may know, the Yampa River is one of the ONLY rivers in the Colorado River basin that is still mostly free-flowing and we want to help keep it that way! John will show his amazing photos, tell about his trips along the Yampa, and sell his books to the audience. The event is at the Twisted Pine Brewery in Boulder, Colorado, and is FREE and open to the public. Although the Yampa is still free flowing, the dam-building rascals in the Denver metro region have their eyes on it, and are still hoping and planning they can one day drain the river and send its water across the mountains to fuel and subsidize population growth. John Fielder says, NO WAY, and we agree 100% with him. CLICK HERE to see the event details — see you there!

Would you like to host an event for Save The Colorado in your city? Whether you are in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, or Vernal Utah, you can join our crew to protect and restore the Colorado River from the source to the sea. Send us an email (contact here) if you’d like to help out!

Thank you for all of your support!!